A Change Of Heart
by Goodxwifex
Summary: “Owen smiled sadly at his sister. As soon as he showed her the outifit she refused to wear it, it exposed her too much. He hated to see how insecure she was about herself . He hoped that College would change her for the better” Alicia Cavanaugh has spent the whole of her life preparing herself for Georgetown Law. However, her life takes a drastic change when she meets Will Gardner
1. Preparation

**Chapter One: Preparation**

Alicia Cavanaugh was a mess, preparing for one of her worst nightmares: Orientation.

She had never understood the need or the sensibility of having one hundred competitive law students get to know one another before classes start through pointless activities. They would all get to know one another whilst competing in class. That's when you really see people's most honest self's, competing for hierarchy above others.

"You cannot honestly think you're going to your college orientation in that?" Owen, Alicia's brother said giving her a look of disapproval. The kind of look that Alicia was constantly giving him. Alicia rolled her eyes.

"Since when have you been all about fashion?" Alicia scoffed, crossing her arms whilst looking Owen up and down from head to toe. Owen was wearing skinny jeans with the legs slightly flared, his top was plain black, over the top of the shirt he wore a red and black waist coat.

"Since you decided to wear that!" He walked into her bedroom which was immaculate apart from the pile of disregarded clothing building up on her clean cream sheets. 

"Why is your wardrobe so business like? Do you not have anything even a little bit slutty?" Owen said looking through all her clothing. Alicia turned around, shocked at her brothers words. Well, she wasn't really, Owen is Owen after all.

"No I do not!" She slaps his arm hard, "I'm here to learn how to be a lawyer, not to have a good time."

"But I hear the male law students are particularly nice at Georgetown.." Owen teases making Alicia once again roll her eyes.

"Instead of trying to tease me, could you actually be helpful and help me choose what I have to wear to this pointless orientation?" Alicia sighs put her hands on her temples.

She sits down on the bed, giving up.

Owen moves his hand through the piles of clothes and finds a white blouse which did show a bit of clevage. Well, it was the most he would find in Alicia's very anti- casual or slutty wardrobe.

He picks up a pair of light blue skin tight jeans that were the only pair of jeans he could find. "Here, try this"

After much deliberation, Alicia decided against the top and jeans and goes for long black business trousers with a Cotten blouse which doesn't show any clevage at all. The trousers could just be classed as stylish as soon as Alicia tucked her blouse into them.

Owen smiled sadly at his sister. As soon as he showed her the outifit she refused to wear it based on it showing to much of her skin, and exposing her too much. He cared so much for his sister, he hated to see how insecure she was about herself . He hoped that College would change her for the better.

"Ready?" He asked her. Alicia turned to him and breathed in deeply.

"As ready as I'll ever be" Alicia looks at her self one more time in the mirror, tying her long, straight brown hair into a slick bun and walks out fo her room. She grabs her bag, keys and book and turns to give Owen a hug.

"I'll see you soon sis" Owen says giving her a kiss on the cheek.

"Call me and let me know how things go with Danny okay?"

"I will I promise, she says she loves me so it can't be that difficult can it?" Alicia smiles at her brother as she leaves her apartment, turning one way towards Orientation while Owen turns the other way to Danny.

Both of them facing obstacles that made them more nervous than ever.


	2. Boxes

**Chapter 2: Boxes**

Will Gardner sighed as he dropped the last box he'd hauled up the stairs, onto his chest of draws. Sweat dripping from his forehead, he sighed contently as he looked around at the room filled with boxes.

"I'm going to miss you Willie" Audrey, Will's younger sister said sadly. She ran into his waist and wrapped her arms around him. She started to cry. Audrey was only 9 years old and it killed her that her big brother was staying in this strange place was no longer going to be at home with her.

"Hey don't worry stinker, I'll be back home soon! We can play all the Othello in the world when I come back home" he said wiping away the tears from his little sister's face. Her eyes lit up when she heard the word 'Othello'.

"Really?! You promise?" She said excitedly.

"I promise" he said, ruffling her hair. Audrey gave him a massive smile and ran around his room cheering. He chuckled as he looked over at Sarah, his older sister who was telling Audrey off for being so loud.

"Be careful little brother.." Sarah said seriously as she gave him a hug. "I mean it", she looked into Will eyes giving him a stern but worried look.

"It's only college!! It's not like I'm going to get shot or something.." he said to her. He couldn't understand why she was always so serious.

"You never know what college has in store for you.. I mean look what happened to d-"

"Not now Sarah" Will hisses to her, not wanting to hear it. Sarah nods her head slowly, understanding. "I just want you to be safe." She says quietly. He looks at her and gives her an understanding smile and leans in to give her one last hug.

"Alright Audrey, lets get going" Sarah calls, pulling away from the hug.

Audrey runs to Sarah's side and grabs her hand. They both wave to Will one last time and leave him alone in his room.

Will sighs and sits down on the bed. He picks up the letter that explains about his welcome to the campus and orientation.

He sat and looked around him at all the boxes he needed to unpack before class started. He got up and grabbed his keys. Unpacking can wait. He decided he'd do it later.

Will closed the door behind him and walked out of the building, feeling the evening sun on his face. He couldn't wait to start a new.


	3. A Splash Of New Feelings

Chapter 3: A Splash Of New Feelings

 **Alicia**

Alicia walked down the maze like streets of the Georgetown campus. With every step she took her breath got more and more heavy.

She stopped outside of the house that was more than obviously housing the orientation. The music was booming loudly, students were smoking in small clusters and drinking like there was no tomorrow. Alicia breathed in deeply. She could tell she was in for a long night..

She manoeuvred herself around all the sweaty bodies and found her self a spare lounger right by the poolside. Alicia smilled to herself as she she walked over to it and sat down, content. She felt more secure with the water close by and her tattered copy of Anna karenina to keep her company. She opened up her book and began to read peacefully. Well, as peacefully as she could with the loud group of guys shouting at one another trying to figure out who's got the best cannon ball. There was a group of girls surrounding them, batting their eyelids and giggling away like pathetic school girls. Alicia rolled her eyes. They're most definitely not law students.

"Come on then Will, show us what you've got" One of the boys yells at one of them.

Alicia shakes her head at all the male bravado as she turns the page.

However before she could fully turn the page, she was completely drenched as a result to one of the boys cannon balls. Alicia got up as she groaned in disgust at getting soaked, her copy of Anna Karenina ruined by the impact of the water. The boys gave a massive cheer as the idiot boy who was obviously "Will" had arisen to the surface of the water.

"Way to go Will!!" They yelled at him. Will in the pool grinned idiotically at his friends. Alicia scoffed in disgust as she got her stuff and headed to the way out. She felt her heartbeat quicken and her eyes become clouded with tears. 'Don't cry Alicia, don't cry' she told her self.

 **Will**

As Will had arisen from the pool he shook his hair and grinned at his triumph. He looked over at the chorus of girls cheering for him. But something caught his eye. A girl who was dressed in a white blouse and long business like trousers. Someone clearly didn't get the memo it was a party.., He thought to himself.

He didn't know why, but he felt the urge to go and speak to the girl.He got out of the pool and grabbed his towel.

"Hey!" He called after her as she turned around and looked him in the eye with a glare that took Will aback

"You alright?" He asked cautiously.

She didn't respond right away, she just stared at him and rolled her eyes at him in disgust.

"Next time, instead of trying to impress your pathetic group of girls and your "mates", make sure you don't just think about yourself and see that you're not all that.." She retorts back at him, still keeping her hawk like gaze on him.

Will chuckled and crossed his arms. This girl clearly did not how to have fun.

"What did I do to offend you so much?" He asks confused at her bizarre words and reaction toward him. In all honestly, he'd never had a girl speak to him like this ever. Will was quite surprised by it. She was fiery by nature he could tell.

"Well.. firstly turning up at the wrong orientation because clearly you are not a law student, and secondly, although your cannon ball impressed everyone who wasn't near the pool, there were others who were on the other side who got the raw end of your "talent". " Will suddenly realised as he looked her up and down and saw that she was quite wet.

But instead of apologising, he decided to keep on teasing her one step further. He didn't know why, he just felt like it was the right thing to do.

"What makes you think I'm not a law student? Well, firstly lady you're wrong, I am one, and secondly I feel like you're the one who's clearly out of place with the choice of dress.." he said confidently, though he did feel his insides turn around as he said the words. He wasn't usually like this. He felt like everything he was saying and how he was behaving was completely foreign to him.

 **Alicia**

Alicia glared one last time at him, scoffed and turned around and walked away from him, not with tears like she'd imagined she was going to leave this party, but with a new anger that filled her and she knew was going to fuel her for the start of the year.

"See you in class!" She heard him yell after her with his irritating cockiness. What a complete asshole Alicia thought.But she knew that she was going to prove that Will guy that a storm is coming for him and she going to show him not to mess with Alicia Cavanaugh.


	4. Behind Those Eyes

Chapter 4: Behind Those Eyes

Alicia

The alarm goes off at 6:25 am. Alicia rolls over on the left side of the bed and hits the alarm clock. First day of classes. Alicia shot out of bed and began her daily morning routine. Her routine went like this:

Brush teeth

Wash face

Shower

clean the bathroom

Get dressed

Style hair

Make coffee

Study

Study. Alicia would always study before class what she was meant to cover in the lesson. She's done this ever since she was a little girl. It gave her security and that was the thing Alicia wanted most in life. Security and a routine.

At 7:20 Alicia leaves her flat and walks to class which didn't start till ten past eight. She loves to be super early. She also loves the emptiness of campus at this time, no one ever leaves this early and it gave her the campus all to herself.

When she arrives outside of her Criminal Law classroom she sits down and sighs contentedly whilst getting out her criminal law text book to study some more for security, of course.

Will

Will woke up at ten to 8. He rolled over to the left side of his bed and pressed the alarm clock to stop it from beeping. He groaned as he got out of bed. Will was not a morning person.

Will went to the bathroom and started his morning routine

Brush teeth

Shower

Get dressed

Grab food

Rush to class.

Will always like the exhilaration of being on a tight schedule and liked having to do things at the last minute because it allowed him to think quickly on his toes. Most people assumed he did this because he was lazy, in fact it was quite the opposite.

He arrived outside of Criminal law just as everyone was walking into the classroom.

"Hey Will man" A guy Will had met at orientation, Henry was his name, called out to him. Will gave him a thud of the back.

"Dude, I'm loving college already. I mean man the women.." Will gave Henry a knowing grin.

"Tell me about it.." He said back in a low voice as there professor, started speaking.

"I mean Sally was just incredible.. who did you have?" Henry replied back.

"Becca I think her name was. I can't quite remember in all honesty.." this made the two chuckle loudly making the professor stop and everyone turn around to look at the them. The first eyes Will saw were the hawks that had been basically haunting him for the whole weekend, the girl from the party. She was dressed similarly to what she was wearing at the party and her hair was in the same tight bun she wore at orientation. Does she not change her look at all? She was glaring at him once again.

"What's your name?" The professor calls out to Will giving him a displeased look. Will could tell he was going to suffer for the rest of the year with the look on this professors face.

"Will Gardner" he anounced boldly.

"So, 'Will Gardner', would you care to just repeat everything I said" he said sternly making a mockery of his name. He saw from the corner of his eye, the girl grinning darkly to herself at his already rapid downfall. Boy, did he wipe the smile off her face.

"Actus Reus is the act of offence. The men's rea is known as "the guilty mind" which is the intent or recklessness of application." Will said non chalantly. He could see the girl purse her lips at the same time as their teacher.

"Be careful Gardner, be oh so careful.." He said firmly as he moved his intense stare away from Will and continued with the rest of his speech.

He looked over at the girl for the rest of the pep talk who was already silently scribbling down notes and watching the teacher with intense and eager eyes. She was committed he'd give her that.

"So, i have allocated your places to sit for the rest of the year and your partners for your first ever mock trial which will take place In two weeks time. Go find your seats, and grab your note books because we've got a heck of a lot to get through" He declared, moving behind his desk and waived his hand to signal for everyone to move. Before he did that however, he took a name tag and looked over at the girl from the party, and swapped it with another one.

Will walked around trying to find his name through the multiple rows of seating until he found his name right next to the girl from the party. He looked at her name tag. Alicia Cavanaugh was her name. She looked horrified as he came to sit next to her whilst he grinned boyishly at her.

"And so we met again" he said cheerfully, leaning back in his sit.

"She looks at him with once again, the Alicia stare he was going to call it that from now on. She lowered her voice but spoke threateningly to him." I swear if you mess this up for me, I will make the rest of your classes even more of a failure for you than what you did to yourself today." He stared intensely at her as well, analysing her face.

Her eyes were like hawks, but there was a softness behind them. He could feel it. He could see she was hiding it. Perhaps she's been hiding it for a longtime. Her eyes looked cold and distant, as if they haven't really been here for quite sometime.

"Okay." He said simply. She looked quite taken aback and turns her body away from him and picked her pen back up and turned to a new page in her book.

Will did the same, grabbed his already tatty notebook, got a pen from the front pouch of his backpack and began to scrawl the date.

"You're left handed?" Alicia asked quietly as she copied her notes down. He didn't look over at her, he decided to keep the peace by replying with the same softness.

"Yes I am. Are you?"

"Yes." And that was all they said for the rest of the lesson.


	5. Change

Chapter 5: Change

Alicia

The first two months of law school had Alicia burning with a passion she had never felt before but it also left her completely and utterly exhausted. She was relieved it was the weekend, it gave her time to prepare for all her assignments and mocks for the following week. But first, she had to talk to Will about preparing for their first ever mock court session.

Will. Alicia had spent the past few weeks having to endure hearing the rapidly expanding amount of girls talking about sleeping with Will and how 'great it was'. Everyday it got more cringey and excruciatingly painful to listen to.

"I'm glad I am not the only one who wants to throw up listening to them" a girl declared making Alicia turn around. She was tall, with dark blonde curly hair that was thrown into a very messy bun. She wore an oversize flannel shirt with a pair of light blue flared jeans. Clearly not a law student.

" I mean really, a whole group talking about how special their night was with Will? Couldn't of been that special since he's left them all..." the girl says loudly with no grace at all in her tone which made Alicia shift uncomfortably.

"You don't say much do you? Will was right about you, you're quite the prude" Alicia turned her head around and looked at the girl with disgust and panic at her words. Why should she even be panicking about what he thinks about her? She doesn't even like him.

"Relax, he didn't really say that about you, I'm just stirring shit. I'm Casey by the way." She puts her hand out to Alicia. Alicia eyes her suspiciously and takes her hand with caution.

"Alicia."

"Ahh she speaks!" Casey laughs, opening up a packet of crisps and munches loudly on them.

"Art student? " Alicia asks giving the girl a small smile.

"You guessed it. Am I that obvious?"

"The clothings are a massive give away"

I could say the same about you" Alicia laughed for the first time in a long time, which took her by surprise. She felt herself retract again as soon as the sound left her and as she saw Will walking towards them with a different blonde girl beside him.

"I'll see you tonight, okay babe?" The blonde said to Will, giving him a big over the top kiss which made Casey gag out loud, catching the attention of Will's 'new girl'. She glared at Casey, but Casey's only response was a big, goofy, grin.

"Go run off to your girl group and talk about how great the sex was. You're not gunna get it again so you better reminisce while you still can!" Casey shouted as she shooed her away, allowing her to give Will a massive hug.

"One day that mouth of yours is going to get you into so much trouble." Will whispers in her ear light heartily. He pulled away as she leaned in to kiss him on the cheek.

"I can guarantee you that that's going to happen." He chuckled loudly and put his arm around her.

Alicia cleared her throat which pulled Casey and Will out of their little banter and back into the presence of the ever impatient Alicia.

"We really need to prepare for this mock so I suggest we meet tonight at 5pm in the east wing of the library to get started prepping for the trial." Alicia stated.

"Alright see you then" Will said with a complete ignorance to her presence. He turned away from Alicia and walked away with Casey arm in arm.

"See ya around Alicia!" Casey called out loudly. Alicia didn't know how to respond. Why was he being such an asshole? Alicia thought as she sat down and got her textbook out. She spent the rest of the afternoon trying to distract herself with work but her thoughts only kept gravitating to him, and that scared her like hell.

Will

Will walked into the campus coffee shop with Casey.

"You have no idea how good it is to see you " Will says to her as they sit down at their little booth. Casey grins at Will giving him a little shove.

"Must be a relief to finally be around a woman who doesn't want to sleep with you the second they start having a convocation with you" Casey states making Will chuckle.

"It has it's benefits" Will states cockily.

"Ive gotta say. I miss the quiet Will you know, the one who would sit at the back of Miss Reece's class and draw out different ways he would make a difference in the world."

"That was a long time ago..." Will said matter-of-factly. Casey scanned his eyes, almost shocked at this new version of the young man before her. How could do much of him change in such a short amount of time?

"Don't screw this up for yourself Will. Don't screw your way out of college just because you're not dealing with-"

"Casey" Will hissed giving her a knowing look. Nonetheless she didn't falter her stare.

"Will, I'm being dead serious. It's taken you so much to get yourself here, don't let all of this sleeping around screw up everything you've worked for." Casey said thumping her and onto the table as she hissed at him.

"You don't have the right-"

"I have every right Will. Who was with you throughout it all? I was. So I have every fucking right to make you see that by burying it all you're not dealing with it. You're running and it's changed you." Casey says softly grabbing his hand. She looks into his eyes. They've lost all warmth.

"The way you were with those girls Will.. you treated her like she was a piece of meat, that's not who you are-"

"You were there making fun of them!" Will said scoffing at her hypocrisy. "Yes but Will you see, before you would of told me off and given me a lecture about me being wrong.-"

"People change Casey, just like whenever you do a new painting, it constantly changes the more colour and life you give it. That's what happening now. My life's changed therefore I've changed. Get used to it" Will said coldly. He gave her a cold stare, grabbed his jacket, shoved the money of the table and walked out the door. As soon as he was far enough away from anyone, he kicked the lamppost furiously feeling deeply ashamed of himself. What was happening to him?


End file.
